An instrument of social justice, folk revival music in New Jersey is a topic that author Michael Gabriele trekked throughout the Garden State to trace--from Bob Dylan's 1961 visit to Woody Guthrie in East Orange to the Swampgrass Jug Band's songs about New Jersey diners and Meadowlands swamps.

"Folk music inspires friends and families to sing together on their front porches and in living rooms and learn instruments. It also creates a dialogue for social and political issues. Members of folk group organizations typically are civic minded and do volunteer work to help those in need and contribute to the greater good," Gabriele said about why he wrote "New Jersey Folk Revival Music - History and Tradition".

Gabriele, a veteran journalist from Clifton, tackled the untold story of New Jersey's folk roots.

Author Michael Gabriele.(Photo: Michael Gabriele)

Joan Baez and Pete Seeger popularized traditional folk handed down via oral tradition as an element of cultural anthropology. The popular, commercial folk form drew structure, style and inspiration from the past. Digging up a New Jersey folk history proved to be a challenge and advantage. The book became a bit of an obsession for Gabriele, mining sources through libraries, historical societies and first person accounts, Gabriele tapped into individuals' vivid memories, insights and experiences. "These individual voices were the pieces of the puzzle that I needed to put together in a comprehensive story and create a narrative," he said.

Anecdotes include the story behind a private recording of a Woody Guthrie concert performed in 1949 in Newark and surfaced 15 years ago. The recording was re-engineered and issued as a CD and is the only known full, live recording of a Woody Guthrie concert, he said. In the mid-1960s Pete Seeger produced and recorded a TV show also in Newark. There were 39 episodes over a two-year period, featuring performers such as Johnny Cash, Judy Collins and Tom Paxton.

The Pinehawkers, musicians from the NJ Pine Barrens, are pictured during a performance in Waretown. Merce Ridgway Jr. (at left, with hat, glasses and guitar), received a "Distinguished Contribution to the Folk Music of New Jersey" award from the New Jersey Folk Festival in 1995. Ridgway's father was a member of the original Pinehawkers, a trio that performed at the 1941 National Folk Festival in Washington D.C.(Photo: Merce Ridgway)

Dylan's visit to Woody Guthrie in an East Orange home while the ailing crooner was at nearby Greystone psychiatric facility is said to have heavily influenced the Nobel prize winner's musical direction. "Dylan was into the Greenwich Village scene, but he took a bus to visit Woody Guthrie, who was staying at Greystone, but somehow had gotten permission to stay in an East Orange apartment [at 182 North Arlington Ave., Apt. 32,] on weekends. Word got out where he was staying. So Dylan visited him, and they were hanging around playing guitar and telling stories. A week later Dylan was performing at Convention Hall, then was at the March in Washington. Things just lined up chronologically," Gabriele said.

Folk music and it's New Jersey connection continues to grow in new directions. "There's a vibrant folk music scene in northern New Jersey for well over 40 years surfacing at concerts halls and coffeehouses, and through community groups. It’s alive, thriving and going strong," Gabriele said.

Examples include Rutgers University which is home to the NJ Folk Festival since 1975, and organizations such as The Folk Project in the Morristown area, and the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club in Fair Lawn, which nurture local folk bands. New Jersey was also the home of two pioneers in the “Guitar Mania” movement of the mid- to late-1800s and early 1900s: William Foden and Henry Spahr.

The Swampgrass Jug Band - clockwise, Douglas John Bowen (saw and jug), Donald J. Bowen, with banjo, James Roy Vasconcellos, with washtub bass, David Rubin, with steel guitar, and Jeff Tyler, with fiddle.(Photo: Courtesy/Michael Gabriele)

Influenced by a variety of folk, bluegrass, jazz and blues music, Rutherford resident Doug Bowen of the Swampgrass Jug Band featured in the book says folk produces generational swings and interpretations. "We respect the past, but let's not freeze it in amber and play it note for note every time," Bowen said, adding the nature of folk music is to improvise at will sometimes. The band's roots began at Pascack Hills High School roots in the 1970s at a talent show when the Eagles popularized folk sounds with the acoustic "Hotel California."

As the 21st century rolled around and the band gained momentum, they focused more on New Jersey lyrics. "'Diner' is more of a mocking love song, not as hostile as Springsteen's 'Born to Run," joked Bowen. "'Urban Swampgrass' is about a mythical tribe living in swamps as trucks go by on the Turnpike."

"He [Gabriele] has a unique way singling out New Jersey folk history, musicians that cycle in and out of New Jersey, and his book taps into that," Bowen said.

So where does folk go from here? "If you're a good musician, you learn the rules so when you break the rules you know what you're breaking and why," Bowen said. And they'll continue to play it Jersey style.

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The Swampgrass Jug Band, based in Bergen County, performed their original song "Morning Glory" at the Solar Festival in the Kittatinny Mountains.
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